Ever since New Zealand authorities smashed the old Megaupload a year ago, acting on (questionable) orders and criminal charges from the United States, the brash German’s entrepreneur’s story has continued unabated with increasing levels of weirdness.

For months, Dotcom has been playing up the new Mega service, claiming it is “Powered by legality and protected by the law.”

Ars will be liveblogging the launch of Mega from the Dotcom mansion outside Auckland, beginning on January 20, 2013 at 1:30am Central Time (yes, overnight), or 8:30pm local time in New Zealand.

"For commercial reasons we are not playing the Kim Dotcom advert,'' a MediaWorks spokesperson told the New Zealand Herald on Wednesday. "When it comes to details of relationships with all of our clients, including Mr. Dotcom, we keep those arrangements pretty confident."

However, she added that cancelling a paid radio ad campaign was a "unique situation'' for MediaWorks.

On Twitter, Dotcom blamed “the music labels that are abusing their power, again.”

A spokesperson for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Cara Duckworth, told Ars that the organization had no role in pressuring MediaWorks to pull Dotcom’s ads.